Wednesday, December 07, 2011

70 years ago

Roosevelt knew. He wanted war. Sensible Americans didn’t. America First. He moved the Pacific Fleet from San Diego and fired the admiral who objected. Thomas Dewey was right (the government threatened him so he dropped it).

Admiral Kimmel was framed. Clear his name. (I used to slightly know his nephew.)

I don’t hate the Japanese: their navy pilots attacked military targets.

They wanted an Oriental empire much like the US controls North America, and Russia its ‘near abroad’ in Eastern Europe (and Germany logically would Western Europe?). Because the British, Americans and Dutch were killing them economically, right in their front yard, with colonies. Would dealing with imperial Japan have been any more of a problem than our business with Red China now?

They had no plan to conquer the US. That’s just FDR government propaganda.

Worth seeing: Tora! Tora! Tora! Accurate (with dialogue in Japanese and the best knowledge at the time, in the ’60s), even-handed and understandably a hit in Japan. It wasn’t in America but it’s wonderfully made as critics now say.

May the 2,000-some American sailors rest in peace. Part of the Greatest Generation.